Know how your product is being used, by whom, and what value it brings to their business is now just one of the most fundamental warnings in sales. Be brutally honest in understanding your customers, so that you can determine whether or not they are successful. A slow economy is a great time to go back and dig deep with your current customers. Spend some time asking detailed questions – What aspects of the product is the customer using? How is it being used? By whom? With what specific results? Quantify everything as you go along so that you can start putting together a solid understanding of the value you provide.

It's important to keep two things in mind as you go back to your customers...

• First, don't go along with past generalities; pin customers down on specifics. All too often salespeople ask whether customers are “happy” with a product and whether there are any problems – and when they get the right yes and no answers, they hang up the phone feeling pleased with themselves. Don't accept this kind of superficial exchange. You need to go deeper and ask: “'Why are you happy / unhappy, and how exactly are you using the product?” What tangible, real benefits are you receiving?"

• Second, don't shy away from unhappy customers. It's a natural tendency: we want to spend our time with the people who are happiest with us and steer away from those who are not pleased. Don't fall into that trap, because it's just as important to know why a customer is unsuccessful as it is to know why another is successful. Ask the same kinds of probing questions of your dissatisfied customers that you ask of your satisfied customers. You may discover that all you need to do to is re-engineer something, or change the appearance to optimise your product for that customer. Or you may learn your product has diminishing returns for larger companies. Guaranteed, you'll learn something, and whatever it is, it will be useful in some way.

When you go through this exercise you'll come away understanding two important things…

• You'll be able to create a detailed profile of the type of customer for whom your product or service.
• And you'll be able to create a solid value proposition, with numbers and quantifiable success stories.

When you combine these factors – by targeting prospects that fit your ideal profile and offering them a compelling value proposition – you'll see your sales closing rate increase, regardless of economic conditions.